Mexico’s legend of La Llorona continues to terrify

Published 7:00 pm, Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Joe Hayes, known for his bilingual retellings of stories from the American Southwest, does a good job of bringing La Llorona back to basics in his 2004 book, "The Weeping Woman."

Joe Hayes, known for his bilingual retellings of stories from the American Southwest, does a good job of bringing La Llorona back to basics in his 2004 book, "The Weeping Woman."

Photo: Handout Cover Art

Image 2 of 4

Adriana Lamar plays "La Malinche" in the 1933 Mexican film "La Llorona." The film draws a parallel between La Llorona and La Malinche, the child of a noble Aztec family who became Cortez's interpreter and lover.

Adriana Lamar plays "La Malinche" in the 1933 Mexican film "La Llorona." The film draws a parallel between La Llorona and La Malinche, the child of a noble Aztec family who became Cortez's interpreter and

La Llorona as she appeared in her debut year at Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Night 2010.

La Llorona as she appeared in her debut year at Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Night 2010.

Photo: David Sprague, For Universal Studios Hollywood

Mexico’s legend of La Llorona continues to terrify

1 / 4

Back to Gallery

A vile monster with an innocent baby in her clutches may be the most viscerally terrifying image possible: Not only does it make every child's nightmare come true, it strikes at the heart of every parent's most primal fear. All the worse if the monster is a mother, the one person a child should be able to count on to keep him safe.

Halloween in this country has been increasingly populated with myths and traditions from Mexico. Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) has become nearly as popular here as in Mexico, and La Catrina is finding her way into northern holiday celebrations. La Llorona ("The Weeping Woman," also sometimes translated as "The Wailer"), on the other hand, is little known outside of areas with significant Latin American populations. Nor does she possess a whit of those other characters' lightheartedness. The dreadful woman is all doom and destruction, embraced in recent years by no less a purveyor of Hollywood horror than Universal Studios Hollywood, which has granted her increasing prominence among the likes of Jason, Freddie and Jigsaw in recent years.

The mother from hell

There are many variations on this 500-year-old ghost story, but the typical version starts with Maria, whose beauty was equaled only by her vanity. She uses her wiles to marry a handsome, wealthy rancher and has two children. After a few happy years, the rancher takes to roaming the prairies, ignoring her while he is home but lavishing attention on the children. One day while walking near the river with the children, Maria sees her husband with a wealthy lady and, in a fit of rage, throws her children into the river. But when they disappear into the water, she is seized by regret. She runs along the bank of the river, arms outstretched, in a futile attempt to get them back.

The inconsolable Maria then drowns herself (or dies of grief, depending on who's doing the telling) and is buried by the villages the next morning. That night, they hear crying down by the river — Maria wailing, "Where are my children?" A woman in a long white robe like Maria's burial dress is seen walking up and down the riverbank. Rechristened La Llorona from that day on, she is still sighted near rivers, oceans and other bodies of water, night after dark night.

So far, more tragedy than terror. In some versions, Maria is more despicable from the start, drowning her children in order to be with the man she loves and killing herself when he rejects her. The scary part comes after La Llorona reaches the gates of heaven and is not allowed in because her children aren't with her. She is trapped on earth, searching in vain for her drowned children for all eternity.

As the story evolved, La Llorona resorted to kidnapping children who resemble her missing offspring, or children who disobey their parents. She has taken on banshee-like qualities, dooming those who hear her wailing to death.

The never-ending story

The tale of La Llorona echoes still more ancient mythology, going back to the Greeks. Upon discovering Zeus' affair with Lamia, Hera forces the demonic demigoddess to eat her own children; Lamia then wanders earth and devours every child she can catch. Medea, who has two children with Jason the Argonaut, kills the children after Jason leaves her for another woman.

But it is La Llorona whose tale has gripped generation after generation of Mexican children. They are warned that if they misbehave La Llorona will snatch them, or that going out after dark will make her appear. Even today, many adults who grew up with the story say they believe in La Llorona.

One of the most puzzling mysteries surrounding La Llorona is why such a dramatic story has produced so many bad movies. The 1933 Mexican film "La Llorona", which interweaves several past and present (as of 1933) permutations of the myth, is still the best. Most attempts since then are too bad even to be laughable, though 2006's "KM 31: Kilómetro 31" is an interesting movie that invokes La Llorona's spirit in a contemporary story about twin sisters trying to deal with the aftermath of a car accident.

The story has taken so many detours over the centuries, in fact, that it can be hard to recognize. Joe Hayes, known for his bilingual retellings of stories from the American Southwest, does a good job of bringing La Llorona back to basics in his 2004 book, "The Weeping Woman."

Fright Nights

La Llorona reaches horrific heights in Universal Studios' annual Halloween Horror Nights this year, a bloody wraith emerging from the shadows on the back-lot streets in soiled white robe and tattered lace veil with a hapless infant dangling from her arms. She first made the cut in 2010, earning a berth in one of the annual event's famous scare zones. She quickly graduated to her own maze, enhanced this year with La Cazadora de Niños (The Hunter of Children), a haunted house with marvelously creepy visuals. There's even a bilingual video diary in which celebrities such as Wilmer Valderrama from "That '70s Show," Mexican actress Kate del Castillo and L.A. Dodgers shortstop Luis Cruz entered their childhood memories of the enduring urban myth.

Can a movie worthy of La Llorona be far behind?

Former Chronicle travel editor Christine Delsol is the author of "Pauline Frommer's Cancún & the Yucatán" and a regular contributor to "Frommer's Mexico" and "Frommer's Cancún & the Yucatán."

Latest from the SFGATE homepage:

Click below for the top news from around the Bay Area and beyond. Sign up for our newsletters to be the first to learn about breaking news and more. Go to 'Sign In' and 'Manage Profile' at the top of the page.